Infection
by PlanetRen
Summary: While Bones is feeling particularly off his game, he has a confrontation with a guest doctor aboard the Starship Enterprise. The ship is then invaded by parasitic aliens which begin to infect the rest of the staff. Bones has push past his differences with this overly confident doctor to inject cell deflector shields into every patron aboard the enterprise before they are infected.
1. Chapter 1

**chapter one**

It's days like this where I really wish the engines would stop whirring. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suicidal; though this isn't the first time I've stood on the edge of the station platform, willing myself over the edge before someone could stop me.

However on this particular day, I was feeling especially out of the loop of things; making my job as head doctor in the Medbay quite the challenge. 

The melancholy emotions of today would wash through every vein they could squeeze inside of, every capillary they could push into, giving the weight of the stress and pressure of my job a one way ticket to my heart; making it sag with pain and emptiness.

But once again, I'm not suicidal, just temperamental.

"There are dying officers in your bay, Bones." a familiar voice caused me to turn my head.

"That's why we have nurses." I replied, turning back to look past the ledge again.

"What's'a matter, Bonesie? Thinkin' 'bout jumpin'?" Kirk laughed to himself, obviously

entertained at the thought that I could even think about jumping to my imminent death.

He knew I couldn't do it.

I pressed my lips together, finding respectable words to say to my captain.

"Ha ha, very funny. Remind me why you're the captain again, would you?" I said, frustrated at the mere thought that they chose _that_ creature over _me_ to be captain.

I looked back to watch him sit down on a load of cargo waiting to be brought into the storage rooms.

"Maybe you should take the night off, Bones. You seem… tense." he suggested. Did he think I was weak? That I couldn't handle the simple task of my job? The same job I do everyday?

Thoughts flooded my mind of possibilities that could give him any possible reason to make me take the night off, make me use my allotted leave of absence, _fire me._

"No shame in one night, Mccoy." he urged.

He did think I was weak. He must have if he wanted me gone so badly.

"I think I can manage my shift." I said, audibly bitter. I nodded somewhat respectfully in his direction before turning away again.

I left then, not looking back at the smile on the face of my captain. He thought we were friends… _Yeah, right._

The walk back to the bay was fuzzy and disorienting, though I figured it was just the anger and frustration settling in my stomach.

The constant whir from the engines fogged my senses, making it hard to think about Kirk's suggestion, or even what he meant by it.

_Damn, I wish they__'__d just stop, even for just a moment. _

Enough time to gather my thoughts.

I can't even remember the last time I had a solid moment to myself in this place, a moment where I wasn't debating jumping off a ledge.

There was constant bustling of people working around the clock to keep this place running as I passed through the corridors on my way to the Medbay.

What if they stopped working? What if for just a few seconds, everything was still? Maybe that's what I needed. A few seconds of stillness.

In the midst of my thinking, I saw something unfamiliar in the blur of people moving around the bay.

A girl.

I didn't know who she was, but I knew I didn't like her; the way she presented herself.

She _oozed_ confidence.

She was powerful.

Who did she think she was? Working in my bay, yeah, right. A cocky nurse wouldn't be allowed here; not in _my_ uniform anyway.

"This isn't the Nurse's Station, Darlin'. Stop messing with my patients and make yourself useful by getting me a coffee. None of that sugar or cream crap, just vodka, lots of vodka." she narrowed her eyes at my words.

"_You _must be Mccoy." she spat, her lips curling into a smile that could hold daggers beneath it.

She walked away then, without another word.

Confidence, I tell you. It's a sin.


	2. Chapter 2

_chapter two_

I've never been a fan of how many hours being the Head of the Enterprise Medbay requires, but I suppose it's good to do something that requires constant focus; distracts your mind. That's the formula then isn't it?

Stress + Anxiety = Need-for-Distraction. Need-for-Distraction + Job-that-Requires-Shit-Ton-of-Hours = Work.

"Doctor Mccoy, someone left this for you in your port box." I turned around to see my favorite scrub nurse holding a styrofoam cup.

Coffee.

"Thanks." I nodded in her direction and took the cup.

That bitch. She was undermining me. She knew that she'd get to me with this cup of coffee; show she was superior.

I swirled the coffee around in the cup before I took a sip. It was pale brown, making me sure, at least half the cup was vodka. Kirk couldn't know or he'd surely make me take the night off to sober up. Maybe that's what she wanted… She wanted me off for the night so she could swoop in and take my shift, and maybe even eventually my job.

"Enough vodka in there for your liking?" I turned around to see her smiling that dagger grin again. Her lips where pink, not bright, but soft and rosy. What was I doing, thinking about her lips; I must me going mental in this damn tin can of a ship.

"Plenty." She was trying to get to me, I knew it. I couldn't just let her stand there and talk to me like that, I was the Head of my bay.

"You know, Mccoy-" she was cut off by a harsh ringing sound.

The alarms.

_**ATTENTION. THIS IS A CODE BLACK. ALL INTERMEDIATE PATRONS ABOARD THE SHIP REPORT TO YOUR EMERGENCY BUNKERS LOCATED IN THE ORLOP DECKS. ALL PROFESSIONAL AND HEAD PATRONS ABOARD THE SHIP, PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR BAYs. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.**_

If there was one thing I remembered from my intermediate years aboard the Enterprise, it was training for a code black.

_Infestation. _

"Are you deaf?! You heard the announcement, get to your bunker!" she only shook her head and pulled her pink lips into a smirk in response to my order. I shook my head.

This nurse needed to be taught a lesson.

The glass doors behind me slid open. They were supposed to be locked during a Code Black, even during a drill. I couldn't bring myself to turn around.

"_Get down and out of sight, dimwit!__" _

_I pressed my stomach to the ground behind the counter containing the files of our current patients. The cool floor touching the sliver of skin showing between my shirt and pants; making my stomach flip._

_Infestation: noun_

_1) the act of infesting; state of being infested._

_2) a harassing or troublesome invasion._

_An Infestation could mean anything, couldn__'__t it? Whether this was a drill or not, I knew my actions and decisions could effect the rest of the staff currently in the Medbay._

_The expectations from my fellow patrons and superiors were excruciating. I didn__'__t know how much more of this I could take before I__…_

_Before I__…_

"Doctor, so nice to see you again." Kirk's voice broke my thoughts.

"It's only been an hour, sir." I mocked.

"Actually I was talking to Doctor Hunt." He said moving over to her and shaking her hand. She smiled her dagger smile and shifted her eyes towards me.

"Evelyn Hunt at your service, Captain."

My stomach dropped. Doctor? There was no way this condescending bitch of a human was another doctor working in my Medbay.

Kirk turned to me with a mischievous smile so wide it could have been carved into his face. He was up to something.

"Doctor Hunt is head of another Medbay in Star Fleet. She will be joining us until she is assigned another mission." I narrowed my eyes in response. He raised his eyebrows as if to tell me that she wasn't just here waiting for another assignment.

Classic Kirk.

"If you weren't aware, Captain, we are currently in a Code Black." Hunt directed the focus of the conversation back to the situation.

"Ah yes, that. Don't mind me, just checking in on the bays for the formal report." his voice was less confident than before, as if he knew something we didn't. This wasn't the first time I didn't trust my Captain.

"I'll be leaving now. Keep your monitors on in case of further instructions or announcements." his voice didn't change, which was making the whole situation more unsettling than the initial shock of the code. Kirk was never anything less than confident, just like Evelyn seemed to be. They would be an ideal match, a couple of hardheaded asskissers.

Kirk left then, making his way back to the bridge.

"Captain Kirk seems to be very fond of you, Bones." her voice was so sweet, almost too sweet.

"Mccoy." I corrected her. "And he's pretty fond of everyone, in all the wrong ways." sarcasm and resentment dripped from my voice.

"Well, Mccoy, I'm happy to be working with you."

Yeah, right.

"But with all due respect, as this is your ship and your Medbay, I do believe StarFleet protocol is to take cover during any code, drill or not." She was right, and I hated to admit it.

I nodded slightly, refusing to make eye contact with her. I wasn't even sure of the color of her eyes to be honest. I did know, however that I wasn't planning to change how I felt about her, even more-so now that I know she's sleeping with my Captain; my ex-best friend.

"Oh, and Mr. Mccoy?"

"Yes?" I didn't look up from the last paper I was signing.

"You got a little something…" she reached towards the corner of my mouth and wiped a smudge of coffee away. I finally looked her in the eyes as we stood there for several moments.

This was an inappropriate thing to be doing, let alone during a code. I cleared my throat and stepped away from her.

"Thanks."


End file.
